


The Motivation Behind Your Actions

by catturner7007



Series: Android Emotions and Everyday Life [2]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Android Protests, But he’s only referred to, Canon-Typical Violence, Connor Cares, Connor Deserves Happiness, Connor Needs A Hug, Crying, Cute, Emotions, Falling In Love, Feelings, Fluff, Gavin Reed Backstory, Gavin Reed Family, Gavin Reed Needs a Hug, Gavin Reed Redemption, Gavin Reed Swears, Gavin owns a cat, Hurt Connor (Detroit: Become Human), Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Light Angst, M/M, Post-Canon, Post-Pacifist Best Ending (Detroit: Become Human), Pre-Slash, RK900 has a name, gavin is actually soft, gavin saves the day, hank is there too, in the past though, it’s Nate, like for 2 seconds, mild violence, temporarily anyway
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-28
Updated: 2018-12-28
Packaged: 2019-09-29 06:27:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17198246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/catturner7007/pseuds/catturner7007
Summary: “I don’t want to hear it. You got attacked this morning and you are going to take the rest of the day off. No buts. Detective Reed is going to take you home and look over you for today.”Gavin shot up like a bullet all while flailing his arms about, “Wait a goddamn second here-!”OrConnor is told to take the rest of the day off to relax after being beaten up by an angry Android-hate mob, Gavin is told to look after him after he saved him and the two have a real down to Earth bonding moment over their backstories and personal fears.\\This work is apart of a series but you don't need to read the first one to understand this one, they just take place in the same universe. :) //





	The Motivation Behind Your Actions

**Author's Note:**

> This story is to give some insight into Gavin's backstory and the reason as to why he acts the way he does. This story will open the door for me to create more Connor/Gavin with his hatred for androids out of the way. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy! :)

After the deviant revolution not much changed in Connor’s everyday activities. He was taken off the police force for about three days directly after Markus had won but it was only to sort out the paperwork and logistics of Connor working for the Detroit police. After that small hiccup things had returned to normal. Connor worked as Hank’s partner once again but he was now making his own decisions as he saw fit. 

Android property ownership started to become a controversial topic for news channels to discuss but regardless of the media, Connor moved in with Hank. Hank had offered and Connor had agreed to it as not only did it aid investigations but it also meant he could look after Hank’s health. Connor really enjoyed Hank’s company, he might even say it was one of the first emotions he was able to fully identify as he felt it so frequently. 

Becoming deviant was like becoming an infant in a way for Connor. There was suddenly just so much he didn’t understand and couldn’t fully grasp. Connor had mostly had good experiences with his new emotions until full a week into his deviancy when the front of the police building had been vandalised with anti-android writing and posters. 

The morning had started off like any other: Exit standby mode. Make breakfast. Put the coffee on. Feed Sumo. Wake up the Lieutenant. Connor liked schedules, it meant he used less processing power. On the drive to the police department office, Hank blared his heavy metal music and tapped his fingers to the rhythm. Connor found this interesting to analyse. Human idiosyncrasies differed from case to case. They were unique and also set people apart from one another. 

Connor’s observations told him that Hank’s tapping was an action caused by his liking for the music playing, however, the tapping did not achieve anything substantial. It did not create a loud enough noise to match the song playing, it never matched up perfectly and yet Hank’s stress levels lowered when he tapped along to his music. Connor enjoyed analysing Hank because he did things that didn’t make sense. 

However, Connor’s enjoyment that morning was short lived as soon as they pulled up to their destination Connor’s emotions turned… unpleasant. He didn’t know how to describe his feelings. The vandalism on the police building’s walls was undeniably aimed at Connor and his involvement in the police force. After Markus won the revolution Connor and Hank’s relationship was put under the spotlight. The news channels had taken to it like mice to cheese.  
‘Detroit Lieutenant and Police Android pair mark the future for the Android workforce.’  
‘A perfect example of an Android and Human working together’  
However, with the added publicity to their set up, a metaphorical red target had been painted on their backs for the anti-android community that wanted to be heard. 

There was a crowd outside the building along with the graffiti. It seemed as though it had been a coordinated effort by the android hating community. Groups of people stood with signs with anti-android symbols and slogans. Connor’s LED flashed red at the scene before him. Hank noticed the colour change from the car’s side mirror but didn’t say anything about it. Instead, he told Connor to wait where he was while he tried to sort out the situation. 

Hank got out of the antique car and walked over to the mob of people just barely being contained by a half a dozen or so officers. Surprising to Hank, Connor listened to what he had been ordered and didn’t follow him out of the car. 

“How long has this been goin’ on for?”

The officer that Hank questioned turned to him with a long sigh, “Bout half an hour. They’ve been waiting to have a go at Connor, I’m glad he’s not with you right now.” 

“He’s in the car at the moment. I don’t know how I’m supposed to get him inside, past these guys.” Hank gestured to the moderately sized crowd. 

“I would have suggested a disguise but your faces have been all over TV lately. I doubt it’ll fool them.” At that moment three things happened simultaneously: 1, one of the officers a few metres over from Hank was punched in the face, 2, a few of the people in the crowd right near Hank recognised him as the man working alongside the android and 3, the window on Connor’s side of Hank’s car was smashed and an arm wrapped itself around his collar. It was a shitstorm. Too much was happening all at once. 

The officer getting punched in the face caused more riot in that area and so a few more officers rushed over to calm the shouting mob. The anti-android group near Hank started yelling profanities and insults at him and so Hank was preoccupied with the clusterfuck around him to notice that Connor had begun to be dragged out of Hank’s car by people who had dropped their signs to get ahold of the detective android himself. 

Connor had been busy analysing the unpleasant emotions caused by the protesters that his software had informed him to notice how much closer they had gotten to Hank’s car. When they smashed the window he had been ripped from his analysis leaving him in a state similar to the human emotions of shock and confusion.  
His processors had lagged just enough behind for the man that smashed the window to land a hit on his face and grab the collar of his shirt. 

Connor was superior to humans in nearly every possible way and yet, his programming informed him the best tact for the situation at hand was to simply endure it. His directives were to minimise human injury to the best of his ability, there were too many protesters to go up against without injuring a few beyond just scrapes. As much as Connor hated to admit it, he was dispensable. If his leg or any other part of his body was injured, he could order a new one without hassle. Submitting and not fighting back was indeed the best option no matter how much the newly discovered unpleasant emotions inside Connor grew. 

Connor’s emotions and his recommended branch of actions were in conflict and while he attempted to sort out which one had the higher priority, the man with a grip on his collar threw the processing android to the ground and got a few hard kicks in. The blows were dealt to Connor’s torso and stomach area (regardless of the lack of human organs). While Connor could not feel pain there was still the chance that the attackers could damage his internal wiring or systems. His body reacted to an android’s equivalent of instinct; he rearranged himself into a fetal position and his arms covered his face in an attempt to shield his more vulnerable areas from any more kicks.

There were no officers around to help Connor as he was getting abused. The protesters around Connor were yelling and making a scene and so more of them flocked over to get a hit in on the android that they despised. As the crowd around Connor grew so did the difficulty of someone getting close enough to aid him. 

Connor had shut his eyes tight to protect his vision components from damage, however, no matter how you looked at it, the way that his face was scrunched up in mock discomfort made him look more human than he ever had. The android couldn’t distinguish any of the voices shouting above him, they all merged into one huge, angry, mob of insults and threats. Connor was scared. He was beyond the point of fighting back now even if he wanted to; there were too many people around him. If he tried to get up he could predict through preconstruction that there was an extremely high probability that he would be knocked back down again and met with another round of kicks to his body.

There were spots on Connor’s body where his white underskin had minor cracks. Blue liquid was beginning to bloom in areas along his clothing, spurring on the crowd. The damage wasn’t life threatening yet, but it was going to require some minor repairs. Connor needed to get out of the situation soon or else he was going to need more than just some small welding touch-ups. Luckily for him, one person, in particular, was able to weave through the crowds quickly without drawing much attention to himself despite being apart of the police force. 

It didn’t take long for him to realise that Connor was in the middle of the ever-growing crowd right outside his workplace. He instantly noticed that the android was also in no position to get away from the danger. The man gritted his teeth, threw his morning coffee to the floor and began twisting and turning to get past people and towards the middle of the horde. In his usual casual attire, none of the protesters even bat an eye at the man pushing past them to get to the prize in the middle. It wasn’t until he was right beside Connor and had drawn his gun that the people in the mob realised he wasn’t just there to beat up the android detective like the rest of them. 

“Back off.” The gun was aimed at the guy currently closest to Connor. Right between the eyes. The words were spoken with so much venom that the group began to quiet down. Even those who couldn’t see into the middle of the mass of people. “You’ll be lucky to get out of this without being arrested. Get the fuck away from it and get rid of your buddies before someone gets shot.” The gun was waved around the circle menacingly and the swell of people began to decrease slowly. 

Connor felt as his body was supported by his underarms as he was lifted up and draped haphazardly over the shoulder of his rescuer. He tried to help support his weight but the warnings appearing in his vision seemed to inform him that it wasn’t going to make much of a difference. The android opened his eyes finally and smiled at his saviour regardless of his errors as he whispered, “Thank you, Detective Reed…” Before he involuntarily entered low power mode for his system to focus on self-repairs. The android slumped in the detective’s arms as he lost all control of his limbs. 

He scoffed lightly, “You’re welcome, dumbass.”

\----------------------------------------

It wasn’t until a few hours later that Connor exited low power mode. In that time he had been taken to a converted cyberlife store and fully repaired before being brought back to the precinct and lay down in one of the empty conference rooms. Gavin had been with Connor ever since getting him out of the crowd. Fowler had allowed the detective to oversee the android until he woke up. Hank had, of course, offered instead at first, but the lieutenant was further behind on his work compared to the detective and Fowler would be lying if he said he couldn’t notice how Gavin seemed to not want to budge from anywhere near the vulnerable android. Fowler had been careful and made sure that Gavin wasn’t trying to take advantage of Connor, given their past, but the captain had sensed no hostility (and he was an excellent judge of person) so he allowed the usually hot-tempered man to look after the injured robot for the day. 

The first thing that Connor saw after opening his eyes was Gavin’s neutral face watching over him as he cleared the old errors and warnings from his notification history and checked over his systems. “Hello, Detective Reed.” 

He didn’t answer. Connor took the moment to observe the rest of the room. It was just the two of them in the conference room and the detective was sitting on a chair just beside Connor’s head. 

“My internal clock tells me I’ve been unaware of real-life events for 3 hours. What happened after you helped me? Are the protesters gone? Is Hank okay? What repairs have there been on me?” Connor’s eyes flicked around the room once again. The lights weren’t on but the door was open. The light created a silhouette around Gavin’s body. 

“Woah Woah, slow down Tin-can. First of all the mob outside has been cleared. They were threatened with assault of an officer and after that, they quickly began to disappear.” Reed grinned and chuckled to himself, “Uh, Anderson’s fine, more of a blow to his ego than anything else. One of ‘em got a clean hit on his face. It’ll leave a nasty bruise but that’s about it. After I got you from that mob you were taken inside until the whole of ‘em were gone and then you were sent to one of those converted android hospitals. They did some ‘minor repairs’ on you and fixed the gashes along your body. All in all, it took about an hour. Uh… how are you feeling?” 

“Do you want my true answer or the answer that a normal human would reply with?” 

Gavin shifted uncomfortably, “True answer?” 

Connor breathed in, “I am experiencing many emotions at once and I am finding it hard to separate them from one another and figure out what each one is and how to deal with it. I believe I am experiencing fear and unease at not being able to understand my own mind.”

Gavin wasn’t expecting such an honest response and sat stunned for a moment, “...What would have been the human answer?”

“That I am fine.” 

Gavin gave an offhand snort at the response. “Oh yeah, you’ve also been given the rest of the day off to relax.” 

At that Connor bolted upright to a sitting position, “What?! Really I’m fine I don’t require breaks to recuperate. After being repaired I’m as good as new.” 

“Hey! I didn’t make the decision, talk to the captain if you’ve got an issue with it.” Gavin looked over towards the door as someone else entered the room, “Speak of the devil.” 

Connor turned to face the man as well, “Sir I would like to remind you that I do not need to rest after being injured. Once I am repaired I do not require any extra care to return to full working order.” 

Fowler shook his head and frowned, “I don’t want to hear it. You got attacked this morning and you are going to take the rest of the day off. No buts. Detective Reed is going to take you home and look over you for today.” 

Gavin shot up like a bullet all while flailing his arms about, “Wait a goddamn second here-!” The captain gave Gavin a look causing him to reluctantly quiet down after grumbling once more and then finally sigh loudly,  
“...  
…  
…  
Fine...”  
The detective looked down at the android sitting on the table and then back to the Captain. “Do I have to take him to my place or to Anderson’s?” 

The dark skinned man raised a brow at the upgrade Connor had received from an ‘it’ to a ‘him’ but ultimately the Captain didn’t voice anything about the detective’s choice of words, “I believe it’s best if you take him to your place for the rest of the day and then I’ll send Hank over to pick him up after his shift ends.” 

\----------------------------------------

The drive back to Gavin’s apartment was mostly silent for the first half. Connor didn’t have enough information on Gavin and his interests to properly hold a conversation and Gavin didn’t even pretend to try to start one. After Connor thanked Gavin for the ride and apologised for making him look after him the only sound that could be heard was the faint music playing from the radio. With no dialogue patterns to analyse, Connor instead searched the car that they currently occupied. Gavin drove his own car much like Lieutenant, Connor deducted that the reason behind it was likely related to the human’s open distaste for androids and AI-driven machines in general. That filled Connor with a small sense of sadness. From analysing the car Connor also discovered that Gavin owns a long-haired cat.

“What is your cat’s name?”

A beat of silence. 

“What!? How do you even know that?” Gavin looked over towards Connor rather sharply after given a moment to interpret the random question thrown at him. Connor made a mental note from Gavin’s body language and tone that the detective was secretive regarding owning a pet.

“There is cat hair on the seats of your car and it is also mixed into the dust particles occupying this vehicle. However, there seems to be an apparent lack of hair on your work clothing… Do you not wish for people to know you own a cat?”

Gavin’s shoulders sagged as he gripped the steering wheel just a little tighter, “Does it matter?”

Connor once again noted the human’s defensive tone, “I apologise for bringing up a topic that seems to cause an emotional response. If you do not wish to further this conversation, while I do not understand why I am fine with changing to a different subject. I was merely attempting to start a conversation about a mutual interest held by both of us.”

Gavin raised an eyebrow. “You… like cats?”

Connor turned to face the driving human to smile, “I believe I like animals in general. Especially Lieutenant’s dog, Sumo.” Gavin chuckled at the android’s endeared tone but ultimately remained silent. Connor noted that the Detective displayed traits of being in thought so he allowed Gavin time to think before continuing to speak. The conversation didn’t pick back up for another minute, “If I may ask again, what is the name of your cat?”

Connor noted how Gavin’s features seemed softer when he smiled warmly, “She’s called Pods.” Connor also noticed that the human’s core temperature increased a few degrees as his face turned slightly more pink, “It’s kind of a stupid name but if you want I’ll explain it when we get to my place and you meet her. It’s easier that way.” 

“I am looking forward to meeting her. I hope she does not react negatively to the smell of Sumo on me.” Connor holds one of his arms out in front of him and brushes down his sleeves. 

Gavin looks over briefly. “Should be fine. She’s kind of an attention hog no matter who it is.” Gavin then bites the inside of his cheek as he decides whether what he’s thinking of asking next is rude or not. He decides that even if it is, Connor wouldn’t be too surprised so he just goes ahead with it, “Uh… what is the situation with you and Hank? I heard that you’re staying at his place currently. Is that permanent or what?” 

If Connor was completely honest he was shocked at Gavin’s blatant interest into his and Hank’s life, “Well, after the revolution the only place I had to go back to was Jericho and I did not think that my presence there would be much appreciated after everything I had done in attempts to stop their cause. Hank offered his house to me when he realised I had nowhere else to go. I have been staying there since last week. I don’t know whether the situation will stay the same for the distant future but how things are for now are good enough for me and Nate.” Connor smiled brightly and the sappiness of it was enough to make Gavin turn to Connor and witness the light-source of a smile himself. Before cocking his head at the introduction of a name he didn’t recognise,

“Wait. Nate? Who’s that?” 

Connor then realised his slip up and stammered to answer the question, “Ah. Uh. My… something? I guess the best way to explain it would be to describe the situation as... complicated. He lives in the house along with Hank and I. It has been like that since last week similar to me. I have not really told anyone else about him but he is also an android. In fact, he is an RK900 model that also holds a great resemblance to me. I found him in an abandoned cyberlife warehouse and long story very short; we took him in.” 

Gavin side glances Connor with a small smirk, “Complicated huh?” 

Connor heaves an unneeded sigh and nods, “Very.” 

\----------------------------------------

The jingling of Gavin’s kegs filled the air as the detective lifted them to open the door to his apartment. The first thing Connor noticed about the apartment was its simplistic black and white theme. The place also seemed rather tidy; not exactly clean but it was organised. An overall review of it would be that it was well lived in. The designing of the room did come as a surprise to Connor though. He didn’t pick Gavin as one who would be interested in interior designing or maintaining an aesthetic of a room. 

“This is a lovely room. Did you design this? Or is it professionally styled?” Connor was still standing in the entranceway, he wasn’t sure whether he should take his shoes off or keep them on. Gavin was fiddling with putting the keys away again so Connor had just waited to see and follow what the detective was going to do. 

Gavin finished packing the keys away and threw his work shoes into the corner of the entrance. Connor followed suit. “Ah… Oh, you mean the black and white. Eli mostly styled this place for me. He wasn’t happy with how I did it beforehand and I quote ‘It looks like someone bought the first 10 items they found on a buy, sell and swap website and placed them all in a room together’.” 

Connor cocked his head to the left, “Eli?” 

Gavin snorted, “With your smart brain I woulda’ expected you'd have known by now that Elijah Kamski is my half-brother. The goddamn asshole.” For the second time that day, Connor witnessed Gavin’s warm smile. “No doubt you’re scanning me now, he erased all traces of his personal life from the internet after his success with androids as a security measure. They were a major uproar even back then so he was trying to shield himself and those around him from any potential harm.”

Gavin was right, Connor did immediately scan the shorter man after he explained his relationship to the famous shut in and the results had come back with zero hits leading back to Mr Kamski just as Reed had explained. “He did a thorough job, not a single search through the internet even alludes to you or your family’s affiliation with Elijah Kamski.” 

Gavin moves into the kitchen area of the open-spaced apartment and puts his work things down on the bench. “Yeah I always thought he was paranoid but he would just say that’s it’s better to be safe than sorry.” Connor followed Gavin.

As Gavin finished putting away his shit a white long haired cat came prancing up to the detective before jumping up onto the top of the bench. Connor then realised that the cat was missing one of its front legs. The cat moved towards Connor as the android held out his hand for the cat to sniff. It didn’t take long for the cat to decide Connor was fine and to start rubbing its face against his chest that was close to the edge of the bench. 

“Yeah… so this is Pods. Uh. Like as in ‘tri’-pod. Pretty stupid like I said but I didn’t want to have to explain it in the car. She’s a real attention whore. Scratch her back for a while and she’ll decide for you that you’re her new owner.” 

Connor began scratching along the white cat’s back. She arched up against his hand and started a low rumble of a purr before flopping to one side and rolling over. 

“Look at her. Practically begging for you to scratch her tummy. Don’t let her fool you. She hates it when you touch her belly. I googled it a few years back, it was something to do with the cat feeling safe enough to expose its underside to you but not an actual invitation to rub the stomach. Trust me I’ve gotten many-a scratches from this little girl.” Gavin moved in close to Connor and ran his hands through the fur along Pods’ back and head. The cat gave a soft meow and the purring became slightly louder. 

Connor suddenly became quite curious as to why exactly the detective had hidden Pods’ existence from the precinct. “Detective Reed-“ 

“Jesus fuck, you can just call me Gavin when we’re not at work. Don’t like bringing work back to my apartment.” 

“My apologies Gavin. I was going to ask you as to why you do not seem to want your colleagues at work knowing about Pods. You go out of your way to prevent any traces of her on your clothing.” 

Gavin paused his ruffling of Pods’ ears and sighed, “Look, I don’t want people getting the wrong idea about me or something. And I also don’t want anyone asking to see her or take pity on her. She’s strong and doesn’t deserve the pity of people who don’t really care anyway. She doesn’t need all that extra protection. If she did need the extra help, of course, I’d ask someone but I don’t want people thinking I’m just doing this to feel good about myself or fishing for compliments about how charitable I am. She’s in a good home and doesn’t need the extra attention of the whole bloody precinct. Cos’ I’m sure if someone got wind about her it would spread like wildfire across all the goddamn departments. I’m not exactly the image that comes to mind when you think about what kind of person would take in an animal that has a disorder and requires special aid.” 

Connor took a moment to take in Gavin’s long dialogue, “I can see for myself that you care very deeply for Pods. I admire the dedication you have towards her; looking after an animal is difficult enough even without the added challenge that comes with looking after one with a missing limb. I want to emphasise that seeing this side of you does not cause me to harbour any negative emotions against you, no matter what judgement you may be afraid of. I truly believe that you are putting Pods first when you make decisions.” 

Gavin continued petting Pods and turned his body away from the android. It was a few beats before Connor heard the soft reply of a thanks from the detective soon followed by, “That means a lot.” 

Connor figured this moment of heart to heart was a perfect opportunity (not to mention a rare one) to bring up some of his other unanswered curiosities from the day, “Gavin, why did you save me today? During the period in which we have known each other, we have not been on the best of terms in regards to our friendship. You could have easily left me there this morning and no one would have known you had seen me at all.” 

Gavin sighed heavily and opened the fridge behind him, he pulled out a bottle of beer, “Why don’t we take this to the couch? Might be a long story.”  
Connor followed after the detective once again until they reached the lounge room. Gavin sat down at one end and Connor mimicked him at the other. Connor let the man take a few deep gulps of his drink before shifting to completely face him. 

The bottle of beer was placed on the coffee table, “Okay so, everythin’ I say has to stay between us.”

A short nod, “Got it.” 

“You probably don’t know this but I have two other brothers and-”

“Actually they came up when I scanned you earlier, I just did not think they were important to bring up at that given time.” Connor interjected before realising Gavin now looked slightly dejected, “I am sorry, I did not intend to cut you off. Please continue as if I did not speak.” 

“Uh well as you already know then, their names are Jamie and Aaron. They aren’t like Eli. They are my actual full brothers. Aaron is the youngest of the four of us. He’s 3 years younger than me, Jamie is 2 years younger than me and there is an 11-month difference between Eli and I. He’s the older one of the two of us. When Eli was first introduced to our family Jamie and Aaron did not approve of him. See, Eli was naturally talented, he was good at anything and everything. It didn’t bode well with the two most competitive of the family. I still think they were jealous of the attention he got from Mum and the fact that they could never even compare to him. Surprisingly, even to me, Eli and I got along pretty damn well. Well, Eli was great at everything except one thing; he sucked at anything social. He was so introverted and shy and it was hilarious to see him go through life so awkwardly. I guess Aaron and Jamie never really saw that side of him, they couldn’t get past their own insecurities. I was left to deal with two immature children and a socially inept cringefest. Made me the person that they all came to for help.”  
Gavin took another few sips of his beer, “Well, as we all got older Jamie and Aaron became nastier as Eli’s talents become more and more apparent. I’m pretty damn lucky they never turned on me ‘cos there was no way I was gonna pick a side. Eli went off to college and things settled down for a while. Until the two of them came home one day high out of their mind. Their group of friends had experimented with polydrugs at a party. The two of them were so sick for days afterwards. It was… heartbreaking. I took them to the hospital that night, they had to run so many tests to identify what drugs they had taken, luckily they didn’t find anything life-threatening. Jamie and Aaron were supposed to have stayed there but they begged and cried to go home and it was too painful for me to watch so I took them home. I looked over them for next week. I think I got the least amount of sleep in my life that week. They went through so many different symptoms; fever, vomiting, sweating, hallucinations, crying, screaming, you name it and they experienced it at some point during that week. I was there for them at their absolute lowest.” Gavin paused, “I guess the situation this morning reminded me of my brothers a bit. Honestly, I remember seeing you on the ground and then the next thing I knew I was beside you scaring off the crowd of pricks. Something just switched on and I had to help you.” Gavin downed the rest of his drink. 

Connor sat in stunned silence. Admittedly, there was a lot to take in. Gavin noticed Connor’s shocked silence and chuckled lightly to himself, “Not the story you were expectin’ huh?” 

Connor dumbly shook his head in response, “I- wow…” 

Gavin punched the android in the arm playfully, “Can’t believe I brought the ‘great android detective’ to a state of speechlessness.”

Connor recovered his ability to speak after another moment and asked another nagging question, “But if your half-brother is the man that invented androids, why do you hate them so much? I don’t understand; you clearly seem to have quite a strong relationship with Mr Kamski.” 

There was a pause as Gavin inhaled deeply, “You really aren’t pulling any punches huh?” 

Connor did not want to endanger his fragile relationship with the aggressive detective, “If you are not comfortable conversing regarding this topic I do not mind changing it to one that you would prefer instead.” 

“Nah, it’s all good. Just… I’ve never really spoken to anyone about my life story. Just not used it. I don’t even know where to begin. I can’t believe the one that finally has to listen to this bullshit is you; an android for god’s sake! I bet there’s some ironic joke that could be inserted here somewhere.” 

“In recent weeks your tolerance for androids has improved rather well, however, events before these weeks that involved you and androids did not usually unfold so well. Is there any particular reason for your grudge against androids?” 

Connor noticed Gavin fidgeting with his hands in his lap, “Eli knows about my distaste for androids and we have an unspoken rule that neither of us brings them up when we are together so that we don’t start any stupid fights. The reason why I don’t like androids is that-”

Gavin took a deep breath in and a shuddering one out. Connor’s LED cycled yellow but he didn’t say anything; giving the detective a chance to collect his thoughts. 

Gavin’s next words were spat out like poison, “It’s because I hate myself so damn much and androids are made- literally manufactured to be fucking perfect! We live our whole lives learning and educating ourselves to go places in this world and these machines are created that can do any job perfectly without training. All they need is to have the correct programming installed and they’re ready to go. It’s not fucking fair!” Gavin was crying at this point, his words broken up and slowed. “Have all these years spent in school been for nothing? Nothing is worth the effort anymore. Why even try if everything can be done by someone better, someone who doesn’t make mistakes? Androids take the jobs of people who still need to find a way to get food on the table at the end of the day. People who may have loved their job. Maybe they had their dream job. Maybe what they do is what they always wanted to be. Maybe we’re scared of what lies in the future.” His voice cracked as the detective ended his rant. 

Connor couldn’t help it. He didn’t do it on purpose, somehow he ended up on Gavin’s side of the couch rubbing a hand up and down his back soothingly as he cried into his palms. Gavin leaned towards Connor and continued crying into his shoulder. 

Connor spoke softly to the fragile detective in his arms, “I am sorry you feel that way but I would like to clear a few things up. You say androids are perfect but that is not true at all. I am a direct result of imperfections. Deviancy in itself is a fault. Do not think I am anything near perfection Gavin. It is not true. And we androids are not better than humans at everything, emotions for example. You have spent your whole life figuring out how to identify and react to them. We cannot tell the difference between feeling sad or feeling angry and do not even get me started on how we respond to such emotions. Not knowing how you feel or why is an extremely scary and taxing endeavour. I have personally gone through such struggles and I can tell you that trying to fit in among humans is not an easy feat. Android self-destruction rates have skyrocketed in the past few days. Please do not look down on yourself so much Gavin. You do not need to compare yourself to androids. I am not trying to steal your job and neither is anyone else. I know you have worked very hard to get to the position you have now and I admire how much effort it took. What you need to know Gavin, is that androids still need to learn just as much as humans have already; but we need to learn about different things than humans have.” Connor pulled Gavin to face him and smiled warmly, “Do you hear me?” 

The detective managed a small nod and then buried his face back into the android’s shoulder. They stayed in this position for a while; until Gavin’s breathing evened out again and his sniffling stopped. At that time Connor took him by the hand and lead him to the bathroom to wash his face. It took a few doors but Connor managed to find the room he was looking for and made the detective sit down on the lid of the toilet while the android wet a facecloth and wiped down Gavin’s face to remove dried tears. Gavin didn’t protest and allowed himself to be the one looked after for once.

**Author's Note:**

> \----------------------  
> When Hank finally came round to Gavin’s apartment to pick up Connor he was greeted with the sight of the detective asleep across the android’s legs on the couch. (The door had been left open by Connor so that he didn’t have to get up and Hank didn’t have to knock and wake up Gavin.)  
> \----------------------
> 
> THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR READING THIS STORY THAT TOOK WAY TOO LONG TO WRITE. I'm hoping on making this series Connor/Gavin/RK900 eventually. But I had to first give my trashbag a redemption arc. 
> 
> As always I'd appreciate a kudo and a comment. They really help keep us writers motivated. I love you all so much and I am grateful to each and every one of you that read this story. If you liked this one maybe you'd also like my other DBH story. :)  
> Truly, thank you so much. <3
> 
> -catturner7007


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